Staging Philanthropy: Patriotic Women and the National Imagination in Dynastic Germany, 1813-1916

This volume is a history of women's philanthropic associations during Germany's "long" nineteenth century. Challenged by the French Revolution and the Napoleonic occupation and war, dynastic groups in Germany made community welfare and its defense part of newly-gendered social obligations, sponsoring a network of state women's associations, philanthropic institutions, and nursing orders which were eventually coordinated by the German Red Cross. These patriotic groups helped fashion an official nationalism that defended conservative power and authority in the new nation-state. An original and multi-disciplinary work, this volume uses archival research to reconstruct the neglected history of women's philanthropic organizations during the 'long' nineteenth century. Borrowing from cultural anthropologists, the author explores how meaning is created in the theater of politics. Linking gender with nationalism and war with humanitarianism, she weaves her analysis together with themes of German historiography and the wider context of European history.